|
|
|
Holy Orders |
|
The Catholic Church centers her teaching on the sacrament of Holy Orders around the mystery of Holy Thursday. In the course of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Jesus confides the worship of the new dispensation to the Twelve. From that moment on, the Church confesses that the Eucharist “is the principal and central raison d’être of the sacrament of the priesthood” (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae [1980]). Most of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers challenged this truth of the Catholic faith. As a reply to their rejection, in both theory and practice, of a sacramental priesthood, the Council of Trent considered it necessary to issue a solemn warning: “If anyone says that by these words, ‘Do this in memory of me’ (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24), Christ did not institute the Apostles as priests, or did not ordain them, so that priests might offer his body and blood for themselves and for others: let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, session 22 [1562]). In this way the Church reaffirmed the biblical truth that the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood of all believers. The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, as recorded in John’s Gospel, places the connection between ministerial priesthood and Eucharistic mystery within the larger context of God’s plan to bring the human race to a knowledge of saving truth. Jesus prays for the Twelve: “Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth” (Jn 17:17-19). The consecration of the bishop, of the priest, and, in their own way, of deacons receives its meaning from that of Christ himself. So the Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing Vatican Council II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 11, states: “Those who receive the sacrament of Holy Orders are consecrated in Christ’s name ‘to feed the Church by the word and grace of God’ ” (1535). As one of the sacraments established for the service of the Church’s communion, Holy Orders provides the world with men whose task is to exercise Christ’s work of sanctification through word and sacrament until the end of time. Three “Orders” Within the Sacrament • The Church recognizes three “orders” within the sacrament of Holy Orders: the order of bishops (ordo episcoporum), the order of presbyters, or priests (ordo presbyterorum), the order of deacons (ordo diaconorum). In Roman antiquity, the Latin word ordo designated a body of persons established for a specific task or function; so, for example, one can think of a governing body as an instance of a political ordo. Ordination, then, denotes one’s incorporation into an ordo. While other orders of service can be envisaged, it is the practice of the Church to use the term “order” only to express the sacramental reality. The notion must be understood analogically, for Holy Orders changes the very person of the one who is ordained. Even with the sacraments related to service in the Church, the sacramental reality can never be adequately described in terms of function alone. Here the analogy of faith operates. Thus, the Catechism tells us: “Ordination is also called consecratio, for it is a setting apart and an investiture by Christ himself for his Church” (1538). This sacramental consecration replaces all other means – such as election, designation, delegation, and institution – of establishing a person in a position of ministry. The Church holds that the act of priestly consecration effects a configuration of the ordained to Christ. The fundamental reason for holding sacramental ordination to constitute something more than the ceremonial designation of a person to perform a specific function rests on what the Church believes about the work of grace. The sacramental action always bestows an abiding grace. Pope John Paul II summarizes this teaching in his apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, summing up the 1990 Synod of Bishops on the priesthood: “By the sacramental anointing of Holy Orders, the Holy Spirit configures [priests] in a new and special way to Jesus Christ the Head and Shepherd; he forms and strengthens them with his pastoral charity; and he gives them an authoritative role in the Church as servants of the proclamation of the Gospel to every people and of the fullness of Christian life of all the baptized” (15). Priestly ordination, then, enables ordinary men to become instruments of God’s grace. This happens of course without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ’s priesthood. St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us, “Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers” (Commentary on the Hebrews, 8:4). Because it serves as a symbolic prefigurement of the sacrament of Holy Orders, the several ordination rites for bishops, priests, and deacons refer to the priesthood of the Old Testament, the priesthood of Aaron, and the service of the Levites. To grasp the radical difference between the ritual service of the Old Testament priests and the sacramental work of the priests of the new dispensation, we must consider what Christ himself accomplished by his life on earth, especially by his death on the cross in satisfaction for sins and by his glorious Resurrection. This theme occupies the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, who asks: “Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?” (Heb 7:11). By posing the question, the inspired author prepares us to recognize Christ as the priest who provides “the surety of a better covenant” (Heb 7:22). This is the new and everlasting covenant written in the blood of Christ. “The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once for all; yet it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church” (CCC 1545). St. Thomas Aquinas shows himself the common teacher of the Church when he writes: “Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ” (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 22, a. 4, c.). The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and priests serves the communion of the Church by building up the Body of Christ. In his encyclical on the liturgy Mediator Dei (1947), Pope Pius XII explained: “It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself.” There is something radical about the priest. So much does the sacrament of Holy Orders configure a man to Christ that even one whose personal life may lack the good character his office requires still acts in the Person of Christ. It is part of God’s gracious design for the good of the Church that the “sacred power” of the priest, provided he intends to remain in conformity with what Christ wants for his Church, is always efficacious in the Church and for the People of God. The sacraments are for the good of men and the communion of the Church. This rich confidence does not mean the sacraments are magic. Rather, they are sacraments of faith. But since it is indispensable that the members of Christ’s Body receive the sacraments of Christ’s love, their efficacy does not depend on the holiness of the one who celebrates them. Bishops, Priests, Deacons • The three degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders are clearly taught in the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium: “The divinely instituted ecclesiastical ministry is exercised in different degrees by those who even from ancient times have been called bishops, priests, and deacons” (28). Bishops and priests share in the priesthood of Christ; deacons, ordained to a degree of service, are meant to help and serve them. The order of bishops embraces those who are regarded as transmitters of the apostolic line. The fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by episcopal consecration, and so the episcopate is called the acme of the sacred ministry. It belongs to the bishop to fulfill the Messianic roles of Christ: to sanctify, to teach, and to rule. This spiritual power comes from a gift of the Holy Spirit that constitutes bishops as true and authentic teachers of the faith and the Church’s pontiffs and pastors. Because the episcopal ministry is exercised in communion with the head and other members of the episcopal college, a special intervention of the Roman Pontiff is required in order that a priest might lawfully receive episcopal consecration. While the Church encourages bishops to be solicitous for all the churches, each bishop has pastoral care of a particular Church entrusted to him. The bishop is most himself when he celebrates the Eucharist, with his priests concelebrating and the deacons assisting. The order of priests numbers those who are the coworkers of the bishops. Though they do not possess the supreme degree of the pontifical office, priests nonetheless share in the sacerdotal dignity of the bishops, on whom they depend in the exercise of their own proper power. In virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, priests are consecrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as to celebrate divine worship “as true priests of the New Testament” (Lumen Gentium, 28). The priest is ordained for the Eucharist, and he is a priest precisely inasmuch as he is able to offer the sacrifice of Christ’s love under the sacramental signs of bread and wine. Because this sacrifice can be celebrated only in communion with the local bishop, and through him with the bishop of Rome, the priest depends on the bishop, to whom he owes respect and obedience. Love and respect for the Roman Pontiff, who serves as a father in the faith for the whole Church, remains a special obligation for the priest. The relationship of the priest to his bishop further includes a special relationship to all the priests of his diocese. Each presbyterium – the body of priests within the diocese – forms a unit of the “sacramental brotherhood” that the sacrament of Holy Orders creates among those who are ordained. The order of deacons includes those who are ordained “not unto the priesthood, but unto the ministry” (Lumen Gentium, 29). The ordination of a deacon, which is accomplished through the laying on of hands by the bishop, but not by the other presbyters as happens at the ordination of priests, marks him with a character that cannot be removed. (The same a fortiori is true for the orders of bishop and priest, with each ordained man participating, as his order dictates, in the office of Christ’s own priesthood.) It belongs to the deacon to distribute Holy Communion, to assist at and to bless marriages, to proclaim the Gospel and preach, to preside at funeral services, and to dedicate himself to the ministries of charity. Since the Second Vatican Council, there again exists in the Church a permanent diaconate enabling men who are involved in these works and who are ordained to receive the strength that the sacramental grace brings. The bishop alone can validly confer the sacrament of Holy Orders. Because the Church is bound by the choice that the Lord himself made in constituting the college of the twelve Apostles, she teaches as irreformable doctrine that only men can be candidates for the sacrament of Holy Orders. Like any grace, the grace to be a priest can be received only as an unmerited gift. Because the priest must devote himself entirely to the study of sacred truth and to the service of charity, the practice of the Western Church is to call men of faith who are willing to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 19:12). Exceptions to this norm, which is considered of great spiritual value for the Church, can be made in specific cases, usually to welcome into the one priesthood of Christ married men who formerly enjoyed a religious ministry in one of the churches of the Episcopal communion but now are in full communion with the Church. The Eastern Church does ordain as priests and deacons men who are married, although in East and West a man who has already received the sacrament of Holy Orders can no longer marry. Since Vatican Council II, Catholics have unfortunately become more and more acquainted with men who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders but no longer discharge the functions or are bound by the obligations associated with ordination. When a man “leaves the priesthood,” he no longer performs priestly actions, but neither does he become again, strictly speaking, a layman. The indelible character imparted by the sacrament of Holy Orders (like Baptism and Confirmation) means that, once configured to Christ as a priest, a man always remains marked by the priestly vocation and ministry. In the same way, the baptized can never completely renounce their status as God’s adopted children, even if they abandon the practice of the faith and no longer participate in the life of the Church.
In the second
century, St. Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 107) already testifies to the
three orders that the Holy Spirit creates among those who receive
sacerdotal consecration. He further describes the peace and harmony that
should characterize the Christian communion, to the extent it enjoys a
right relationship to the hierarchical priesthood. Ignatius interprets
the sacrament of Holy Orders as an instrument of God’s saving action in
the world. He addresses the community at Magnesia, which he had visited
on the way to Rome where he would be martyred: “I exhort you to strive
to do all things in harmony with God: the bishop is to preside in the
place of God, while the presbyters are to function as the council of the
Apostles, and the deacons, who are most dear to me, are entrusted with
the ministry of Jesus Christ” (Letter to the Magnesians 6, 1). See: Bishop; Celibacy, Priestly; Deacon; Eucharist; In Persona Christi Capitis; Ministry; Priest; Priesthood in the Old Testament; Priesthood of Christ; Priesthood of the Faithful; Women, Ordination of. Suggested Readings: CCC 1533-1600. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, Ch. III; Decree on the Bishops’ Pastoral Office in the Church, Christus Dominus. John Paul II, I Will Give You Shepherds, Pastores Dabo Vobis. J. Galot, Theology of the Priesthood. A. Nichols, O.P., Holy Order. Romanus Cessario, O.P. |
|
|
|
|
